The Soyuz rocket carrying NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, that was launched this morning for a four-orbit, six-hour journey to the international space station was forced to return to earth after an issue with the booster.

The Soyuz capsule returned to Earth via a ballistic descent, which is a sharper angle of landing compared to normal. Search and rescue teams took off and headed towards the touchdown location of the Soyuz spacecraft where they safely recovered both passengers. NASA confirmed that the incident was the first unscheduled manned Soyuz return to Earth since 1975.

The Roscosmos State Corporation for Space Activities is forming a State Commission to investigate today’s Soyuz launch incident.